Gail Kerr: Much about Vanderbilt rape case remains a mystery

Sep. 25, 2013

District Attorney Torry Johnson

Written by

Gail Kerr

The Tennessean

Raw video: Davidson County District Attorney Gener...: Davidson County District Attorney General Torry Johnson addresses Chris Boyd plea deal during a news conference with reporters on Thursday.

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It’s a pretty simple question: On the night of June 23, when an unconscious Vanderbilt student was allegedly viciously raped by members of the Vanderbilt football team, was the starting quarterback there before, during or after?

It’s a yes or no question. But prosecutors are playing a championship game of dodgeball.

And District Attorney Torry Johnson’s attempt to face reporters and explain made it worse, not better.

Here’s what is known:

Former wide receiver Chris Boyd pleaded guilty to trying to cover up the rape. In doing so, he has become a key prosecution witness to what happened that night and is expected to testify against his teammates, who were thrown off the team and banned from campus.

At the plea hearing, in open court, Deputy District Attorney Tom Thurman — so renowned for his courtroom skills that he is dubbed “the Thurmanator” — laid out the facts of what prosecutors believe happened. Much of that relies on text messages sent by Boyd.

Those, read into the court record, include one in which Boyd makes reference to starting quarterback Austyn Carta-Samuels helping move the partially clothed, unconscious 21-year-old out of a dorm hallway and into a dorm room. There is no allegation that Carta-Samuels took part in the sexual assaults, or that he knew about them — only that he helped his teammates move her.

Predictably, the media went nuts. Within minutes of Thurman reading the text in court, social media lit up.

“Certainly we did not anticipate that it would create quite the stir that it did,” Johnson said at a news conference late last week.

Seriously? The entire reason the rape story is so huge is because it involves Vanderbilt football players. Accusations of rape and assault on campuses happen routinely but don’t make the news. That’s not fair, but it’s the way the world works. But no one with a moral soul can hear what was done to that young woman and worry more about football than the victim.

Surely, as smart as Johnson and Thurman are, they must have realized the buzz disclosure of the quarterback’s presence would cause.

Here’s what is known: Boyd swore in court that everything read by prosecutors was accurate. Johnson now says Boyd was only swearing that he wrote and sent those texts, not that the actual words were true. He “misidentified” the quarterback, prosecutors said in a statement.

Do they think we’re fools? Boyd is an excellent student-athlete on scholarship, a star on a high-profile team who found himself called on by teammates to help clean up and cover up a big fat mess. And he didn’t notice who was actually there? Especially his starting quarterback? Are we expected to believe this?

And more important, what does this say about the prosecution’s case? The poor victim was out cold. She cannot tell jurors what happened to her. Thurman’s case depends on Boyd to testify about what happened.

If Boyd cannot be depended on to correctly identify who was there, can jurors find the rest of his testimony believable?

The starting quarterback’s name remains on the prosecutors’ witness list.

It’s a legitimate question to ask why that is. But prosecutors are dancing. Again, why?

Gail Kerr’s column runs on Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. She can be reached at 615-259-8085 or gkerr@tennessean.com.